BANDWIDTH AWARE DIGITAL VIDEO RECORDING (DVR) SCHEDULING

• US 20150249803A1
• Filed: 03/03/2014
• Published: 09/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/03/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Tozer, Mark, Shetty, Bharath, Wyner, Saul, Ellefson, Yvonne, Truong, Jeffery C., Lett, Tim
• Granted Patent: US 9,641,791 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4334 Recording operations recording of a television signal H04N5/76; arrangements for recording or accumulating broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/27
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44209 Monitoring of downstream path of the transmission network originating from a server, e.g. bandwidth variations of a wireless network arrangements for maintenance or administration in data switching networks involving bandwidth and capacity management H04L41/0896
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4583 Automatically resolving scheduling conflicts, e.g. when a recording by reservation has been programmed for two programs in the same time slot
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47214 for content reservation or setting reminders; for requesting event notification, e.g. of sport results or stock market stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; notification of incoming messages in packet switching networks H04L51/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6547 comprising parameters, e.g. for client setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/781 on disks or drums

Abstract

A scheduler is used to identify a schedule conflict that affects a client device receiving multiple media programs over a network. The scheduler is associated with the client device or a head-end source from which the programs are received. The scheduler accesses a schedule, which specifies a scheduled time at which multiple media programs are to be received by the client device. The scheduler obtains the actual bitrate to be consumed by each of the media programs as they are to be streamed to the client device. Based at least in part on the bitrates obtained for each of the media programs, the scheduler identifies a conflict that prevents at least one of the media programs from being streamed to the client device over the network. The scheduler enumerates at least one solution to the conflict to thereby resolve the conflict.

Claims

1. A method of identifying a schedule conflict that affects a client device receiving multiple media programs over a network, comprising:

accessing a schedule that specifies a scheduled time at which each of a plurality of media programs are to be received by a client device;

at the scheduled times, obtaining a bitrate to be consumed by each of the media programs as they are to be streamed to the client device;

based at least in part on the bitrates obtained for each of the media programs, identifying a conflict that prevents at least one of the media programs from being recorded by the client device; and

enumerating at least one solution to the conflict to thereby resolve the conflict.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising enumerating the at least one solution by identifying one or more of the media programs that are to be canceled.

3. The method of claim 1 in which enumerating the at least one solution includes resolving the conflict using an iterative set of pre-established rules.

4. The method of claim 3 in which the pre-established rules include first prioritizing preservation of media programs associated with series scheduled for recording by the client device and then prioritizing preservation of High Definition (HD) media programs scheduled for recording.

5. The method of claim 4 in which the pre-established rules further include, after preserving the HD media programs, selecting one or more remaining media programs to be recorded such that a minimum of media programs are canceled.

6. The method of claim 5 in which the pre-established rules further include, after selecting the one or more remaining media programs, prioritizing preservation of media programs that include content relating to a movie or a sporting or other special event.

7. The method of claim 1 in which the at least one solution includes a plurality of solutions and further comprising presenting a user of the client device with the plurality of solutions so that the user is able to select one of the solutions through a user interface.

8. The method of claim 1 in which obtaining the bitrate consumed be each of the media programs includes calling a network operator over the network to request the bitrates.

9. The method of claim 1 in which identifying the conflict includes accessing an Ingress Profile associated with the client device specifying a maximum number of media program streams that can be simultaneously streamed to the client device and a maximum bandwidth available to the client device and further comprising comparing a sum of the bitrates obtained by the client device to the maximum bandwidth available to the client device.

10. A scheduler associated with a client device receiving multiple media programs over a network, comprising:

one or more computer readable media;

schedule setting programming logic embodied on the one or more computer readable media and being configured to establish a schedule that specifies a scheduled time at which each of a plurality of media programs are to be received by a client device;

conflict identification programming logic embodied on the one or more computer readable media and being configured to obtain a bitrate to be consumed by each of the media programs as they are to be streamed to the client device and, based at least in part on the bitrates obtaining for each of the media programs, identify a conflict that prevents at least one of the media programs from being recorded by the client device;

solution enumeration module programming logic embodied on the one or more computer readable media and being configured to enumerate at least one solution to the conflict by identifying one or more of the media programs that are to be to canceled to thereby resolve the conflict.

11. The scheduler of claim 10 in which the solution enumeration module is further configured to enumerate the at least one solution by identifying one or more of the media programs that are to be canceled.

12. The scheduler of claim 10 in which the solution enumeration module is further configured to resolve the conflict using an iterative set of pre-established rules.

13. The scheduler of claim 12 in which the pre-established rules include first prioritizing preservation of media programs associated with series scheduled for recording by the client device and then prioritizing preservation of High Definition (HD) media programs scheduled for recording.

14. The scheduler of claim 13 in which the pre-established rules further include, after preserving the HD media programs, selecting one or more remaining media programs to be recorded such that a minimum of media programs are canceled.

15. The scheduler of claim 14 in which the pre-established rules further include, after selecting the one or more remaining media programs, prioritizing preservation of media programs that include content relating to a movie or a sporting or other special event.

16. The scheduler of claim 10 in which the conflict identification programming logic is further configured to obtain the bitrate consumed be each of the media programs by calling a network operator over the network to request the bitrates.

17. The scheduler of claim 10 in which he conflict identification programming logic is further configured to identify the conflict by accessing an ingress profile associated with the client device specifying a maximum number of media program streams that can be simultaneously streamed to the client device and a maximum bandwidth available to the client device and comparing a sum of the bitrates obtained by the client device to the maximum bandwidth available to the client device.

18. One or more computer-readable storage media containing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors perform a method comprising:

accessing a schedule that specifies a scheduled time at which each of a plurality of media programs are to be received by a client device;

at the scheduled times, obtaining a bitrate to be consumed by each of the media programs as they are to be streamed to the client device;

based at least in part on the bitrates obtained for each of the media programs, determining that unused bandwidth remains available to the client device at the one or more scheduled times; and

indicating to the user that unused bandwidth is available.

19. The one or more computer-readable storage media in which the method further comprises presenting a user of the client device with one or more options for consuming the unused bandwidth.

20. The one or more computer-readable storage media in which at least one of the options includes upgrading an SD media program currently being recorded to a HD media program.